Teen Magazine Cover Gets Clearasil Zit Sticker

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Either ingenious or just gross, Clearasil has placed a sticker that looks like a zit on German teen magazine stadtlichter. Created by Euro RSCG Duesseldorf, the sticker says "Get rid of it" and when removed from the magazine cover, the Clearasil brand is revealed along with the brand's website address.

Assuming teenagers still pick zits off their face, it's likely they'd be predisposed to pick one off a magazine cover as well. It seems they did according to Clearasil which reported a spike in website traffic during the run of the campaign.

by Steve Hall    Jan-10-08    
Topic: Good, Magazine, Poster, Specialty



Jet's Pizza Lets You Have Your Cake With Just Deserts

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Ever had that annoying co-worker or that pompous boss of yours walk into the lunch room and ask you for a slice of your pizza without the smallest hint of thanks or appreciation? You know you have and while you'd love to stand up and punch the crap out of these insensitive losers, you'd also like to keep your job. Thanks to Jet's Bold Fold Pizza, now you can have your cake (pizza) and eat it too. And leave the lunch room knowing these idiots will get their just deserts.

By the way, just what the hell does "you can't have your cake and eat it too" really mean? If you have a cake, of course you're going to eat it. And what the fuck is up with "just deserts" taking on the meaning of getting what one deserves? Just who makes up these wacky phrases?

by Steve Hall    Jan- 9-08    
Topic: Commercials, Good, Specialty, Strange



Some Holiday Cards Actually Wish People A Merry Christmas

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You've got to love a Christmas card which doesn't pretend to be a politically correct "holiday card" featuring the caricature of a sexy, buxom, bikini-clad, bubble-headed blond that comes from a company run by a woman. Yes, the very beautiful (yup, we did just say that) Buffy McCoy Kelly who heads TattooProjects has no problem latching on to a stereotype and using sex to sell. OK, so it's just a holiday card but we like it. And we like Buffy too.

by Steve Hall    Dec-13-07    
Topic: Agencies, Good, Specialty



Triumph Boat Baits Anglers With Fish Fry Feeding Frenzy

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Does PETA care about fish? If they do, they might not like this new ad campaign from Triumph boats which promotes a Triumph Boat-sponsored "Feeding Frenzy" fishing tournament. With a Game Fish Identification Chart, the campaign, tagged "Good For You, Bad For The Fish," gleefully celebrates the all you can eat fish fry.

The campaign, created by The Republik in Durham, NC, includes posters, print and t-shirts to aid Triumph dealers in co-ordinating their individual fish fry events. And in case PETA wants to stage a protest, The first event will be held January 18 at Merritt Marine in Hillsborough, NC.

by Steve Hall    Dec-12-07    
Topic: Campaigns, Good, Magazine, Newspaper, Point of Purchase, Poster, Specialty



McDonald's Stoops to New Low With Report Card Advertising

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Hey kids! Guess what? If you study hard and get good grades, guess what you'll get? No, not a college scholarship, sillys. That would be too boring. No, if you get good grades on your report card, you'll get a Happy Meal coupon on the card that you can use to get fat...uh...have a free lunch.

Yea, people, you read that right. In-school advertising's idiocy has spread to report cards. Yes, report cards. For covering the paltry $1,600 printing cost of Seminole County Florida's 2007-2008 report cards, McDonald's was able to place the coupon on the report cards of kids who received all A's and B's. Yes, you also read that right. Only smart kids are allowed to get fat.

more »

by Steve Hall    Dec- 6-07    
Topic: Brands, Opinion, Specialty, Worst



Sit Still for Four Minutes; You May Just Learn Something

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Here's a handy video on Intimis PURLs -- personalized URLs that tell you more about your individual site visitors than analytics that normally just show you traffic and conversion number per landing page.

Put together by Proctor & Stevenson, it's damn informative -- but after the :30 mark we wanted to tear out our hair. It's to our credit that we watched the whole thing and learned Intimis can increase your hypothetical conversion rate from one in three, to two in three, without much increasing follow-up time.

Where's our spoonful of sugar, Intimis?

PS. We're also a little pissy about the comment spam you passed us in one of our company surveys. Not cool, Intimis. Not cool.

by Angela Natividad    Nov-30-07    
Topic: Specialty, Tools, Video



Notebook of Napkins Stretches Limits of Logic

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Euro RSCG has created spiral bound notebooks with pages made of actual napkins because, as we all know, great ideas usually come when we're not in the office and are away from our computers and scratch pads and having a pad made out of napkin pages would solve that problem, right?

Well, it might if you had the actual notebook with you which you wouldn't because you left it in the office with all your other stuff which is why all you have to write on is an unbound napkin laying on the bar.

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by Steve Hall    Nov-20-07    
Topic: Online, Specialty, Strange



Escalator Handrail Advertising Comes to America

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Come on, ad:tech! Oracle's Openworld has them. Why not you guys? Oh yes, you have beautifully branded San Francisco's Moscone Center stairs with the likes of DoubleClick but branded escalator handrails are where it's at now. Stairs or so...well, passe. While branded escalator handrails have been around for a while overseas, Aap Global, creator of the medium, tells us this is the first stateside installation.

So get on the phone to DoubleClick and get them to cough up some more sponsorship dollars for some cool looking handrails for the upcoming show in April. Are you gonna let old school Oracle have all the glory? Say it isn't so.

by Steve Hall    Nov-19-07    
Topic: Industry Events, Outdoor, Specialty



Home Depot Shopping Carts Spout Text-Based Marketing Messages

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This unnecessarily long article by Forbes, chock-full of handy-dandy survey data, tells us one -- well, two -- important things:

- A new concept is born: "shopper marketing." (Known to you traditionalists -- har har -- as in-store advertising.)
- Concept shopping carts are getting outfitted with a text messaging device, courtesy of Modstream. It's appearing at Home Depots in 8 states.

The idea is that shoppers, which haven't warmed much to video-outfitted shopping carts, will take advantage of coupons, or marketing messages, or whatever-else, at their fingertips.

more »



Frozen Babies Found In Grocery Freezers, Child Abuse Prevented

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If you live in France and happen to have found a baby in the frozen food section of your local grocer, fear not. This isn't the latest baby dumping stunt by a distraught teenager; it's just a home-grown campaign to promote France's national child abuse phone number, 119. Another clue this isn't one of those baby-in-a-trash-barrel things: the babies here are tiny, plastic and wrapped in bags like toys.

It's not a sanctioned campaign but a one-off from a group of people who think the cause needs greater promotion. We're not sure what we'd do if we found a frozen baby while reaching for a bag of frozen peas but we sure like the approach these guys took to call attention to the issue. Watch the video.

by Steve Hall    Oct-29-07    
Topic: Good, Guerilla, Point of Purchase, Specialty, Strange